Page:Seven Years in South Africa v2.djvu/361

 goes very much hand-in-hand with courage, and consequently while it is highly developed amongst the Matabele, it is at a very low ebb amongst the Marutse-Mabundas; and notwithstanding that the Marutse make the other tribes feel that they are a dominant race, they exhibit nothing of the arrogance of conscious power that characterizes the Zulus. Even the Matabele settled in the Barotse have been influenced by their peaceful surroundings, and have exhibited something of the qualities of tamed lions; and altogether the relations between master and servant in the districts about the Zambesi are much more friendly than amongst the tribes to the south.

The Mamboë, and all the more northerly tribes that seldom come to court, are particularly unassuming in their demeanour; and although the natives of the Chobe district, the Batokas and Matongas on the Zambesi, as well as the Marutse, can be very overbearing with white men, the blame is more often than not to be attributed to the white men themselves. But haughtiness of this kind can scarcely be called pride, and I observed that a little firmness and severity rarely failed to bring the offenders to reason, and to check their disposition to be insolent.

The blindness of the obedience which is ordinarily rendered to rulers is exemplified by the fidelity of the people to Sepopo; but I am obliged to record that a corresponding faithfulness does not extend itself to conjugal life. Although I am prepared to allow that marriage in many instances may be the result of mutual affection, I am convinced that marriage-vows are very rarely considered binding, as the mulekow system too plainly testifies.